BAGHDAD (Dispatches) –
Hundreds of Iraqi protesters closed entrances to Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Monday in protest of the results of the country’s parliamentary elections, according to a local security official.
The protest came hours before an expected verdict by Iraq’s Federal Court in a lawsuit contesting the results of the 10 October polls.
The security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said additional security and military forces were dispatched to the area to prevent protesters from storming the zone.
The Green Zone hosts most foreign diplomatic missions, including the U.S. Embassy.
After a delay of more than two months, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court ratified the results of the October parliamentary elections, rejecting earlier appeals against the outcome, including those filed by the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi.
“The Federal Supreme Court has ratified the results of the legislative elections” held on October 10, the Supreme Court’s media officer, whose name was not mentioned in the report, announced in a brief statement on Monday.
The ratification now paves the way for a fresh parliament to hold its inaugural session within two weeks.
The elections were originally planned to be held in 2020, but the date was brought forward in the wake of a mass protest movement that broke out in 2019 to call for economic reforms, better public services, and an effective fight against unemployment and corruption in state institutions.
The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and a number of major cities became tense after the preliminary results came out, with several political factions and their supporters in the country rejecting them as “fraudulent.”
Earlier in the day, Judge Jassim Mohammed said the Federal Court dismissed appeals filed by the PMU leaders.
“The Federal Court has decided to reject the complaint aimed at not having the (election) results ratified, and to make the plaintiff bear the costs,” he said as he read out the ruling at the court headquarters in Baghdad. The judge also stressed, “The verdict is binding on all authorities.”
The Fateh (Conquest) Alliance – the political arm of the multiparty PMU – managed to secure 17 seats, compared to the 48 it held in the outgoing parliament of 329 members.
Cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Sairoon coalition, Fateh’s biggest rival, won 73 seats, making his party the first bloc in parliament, and, thus, giving him considerable influence in forming a government.
Recently, leaders of the Fateh Alliance held a press conference during which they explained the reasons for their complaint, detailing irregularities that occurred during the October elections. They cited expert reports from a German company commissioned by the electoral commission to assess the conduct of the vote, recalling that the fingerprints of many voters could not be recognized during electronic voting. They also indicated the failure of an electronic device used for the ballot – the ‘C-1000.’